Tara Kishbaugh

Dr. Tara L.S. Kishbaugh obtained her undergraduate degree in chemistry from Wheaton College and her graduate degree in organic chemistry studying the reactivity of electron deficient indoles at Dartmouth College under the mentorship of Gordon W. Gribble. During graduate school, she spent a year teaching organic chemistry at St. Michael’s College, Winooski, Vermont. Afterwards, she was a Dreyfus postdoctoral fellow at the University of Massachusetts, North Dartmouth campus. During this position, she taught as well as studied fluorinated allenes. At EMU, Tara has taught a variety of courses, including organic, general, medicinal, and environmental chemistry as well as seminars on ethics, land use, and food chemistry. Since 2013, she is chair of the biology and chemistry departments. Tara has been involved in a number of trans-disciplinary projects on campus, such as EMU Common Reads, a common reading and associated programming. Tara’s chemistry-related hobbies include photography, baking, and tie-dying. Tara’s research interests include chemical education, heterocyclic chemistry, and water quality studies.

Dr. Kishbaugh’s research interests include
- Chemical education projects, such as assessing non-content learning in laboratory research projects, or
- Assessing student familiarity with and understanding of green chemistry, or
- Improving student’s engagement with math coursework by adding contextual relevance to the assignments
- Writing review chapters on heterocyclic chemistry- in particular indoles and pyridines
- Water quality monitoring in the local watershed related to bacterial contamination, run-off or hydrofracking.

Implementing a ‘Research Across the Curriculum’ program in the chemistry and biology departments. Kishbaugh, T.L.S.; Cessna, S. 22nd Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, State College, Pa. July 29-August 2, 2012.

A report on using copper phytoremediation projects for teaching second semester general chemistry concepts and skills. Cessna, S.; Kishbaugh, T.L.S. 22nd Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, State College, Pa. July 29-August 2, 2012.

Tracking the development of the nature of science understanding over an undergraduate STEM career. Cessna, S.; Kishbaugh, T.L.S. 22nd Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, State College, Pa. July 29-August 2, 2012.

Ad-hoc reviewer for Current Organic Chemistry, Letters in Drug Design and Discovery, Studies in Natural Product Chemistry and American Chemical Society- Petroleum Research Fund Undergraduate Research Proposals

Relating to the Land- Interdisciplinary, team-taught senior seminar which examines the variety of ways that people groups have related to and used the land, with an emphasis on regional topics, Appalachian studies. 2006Drugs: Discovery, Design, Action- A writing intensive medicinal chemistry course intended to teach the principles that govern the process of modern drug discovery and development and to introduce students to some modes of drug activity. 2007, offered online in 2013. Food: Science, Rituals, Lore-A honors colloquium about the ways in which we as a society relate to food. As a science, cooking may be the oldest and most widespread application of chemistry and recipes may be the oldest practical result of chemical research. While we can learn much about food by studying the chemistry of cooking it and the nutrition we gain from it, often what we eat and how we eat it are packed with meaning beyond what is scientifically measurable. 2008